Premier Wealth Planning Client Agreement

Transcription

1 Premier Wealth Planning Client Agreement Our Services Premier Wealth Planning (PWP) is able to act on your behalf in advising you on investments, noninvestment insurance contracts and mortgages. We offer products and services as follows: Investments - we provide an independent advice service. We will make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs. Our recommendation will be based on a comprehensive and fair analysis of the market. Non-investment protection contracts - we advise on non-investment protection products e.g. term assurance, income protection and critical illness from a range of insurers. Mortgages we advise on mortgage products. Where we propose to do so we will provide you with a separate Key Facts about our services document detailing the services we offer and the costs of those services. We offer you an initial discussion (without charge) at which we will describe our services more fully and explain the payment options. If you decide to go ahead, we will: Gather and analyse personal financial information about you and your needs and objectives; Recommend and discuss any action we think you should take and, with your agreement, arrange relevant solutions for you. Your Aims and Objectives Unless we notify you in writing to the contrary, we will be treating you as a retail client. This means that you are afforded the highest level of protection under the regulatory system and should have the right to take any complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Any advice or recommendation that we offer to you, will only be given after we have assessed your needs and considered your financial objectives and attitude to any risks that may be involved. We will also take into account any restrictions that you wish to place on the type of products you would be willing to consider. We will confirm to you in writing the basis of our recommendations along with details of any special risks associated with the products recommended. As discussed, we advise on mortgage products from the whole of the market. However, we do not transact mortgages. This means that whilst we can advise on mortgages, we usually outsource these to an external organisation or we may recommend that you go directly to a recommended lender. Ultimately, our recommendation to you will be based on the most suitable mortgage product incorporated within the range available to intermediary firms. If there is a particular mortgage product that you are aware of which is available directly from a lender that you wish us to review and comment on, we are happy to do so. We may charge you a fee for providing advice in relation to this but would agree this with you at the time. Full details of the products we recommend to you including, for example, the minimum duration of the product, information on your right to cancel or whether no right to cancel exists, and any other early termination rights and penalties, will be covered in the relevant product disclosure information you will receive before conclusion of any contract.

2 We will issue any documentation/recommendations and any other communication to you in English (unless agreed otherwise). In executing or transmitting applications on your behalf to third parties, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that we obtain the best possible result for you. This is referred to as best execution. Further details of our best execution arrangements are available on request. Under the terms of this agreement, we may, if appropriate, advise you on investments which are not readily realisable. We would draw your attention to the risks associated with these investments as there is a restricted market for them. In some circumstances it may therefore not be possible to deal in the investment or obtain reliable information about its value. Our services may also include advice on investments relating to, or executing transactions in units in unregulated collective investment schemes. Accordingly, you should carefully consider whether such investments are suitable for you in light of your personal circumstances and the financial resources available to you. We may also, on occasion, advise on other financial products which are not regulated by the FCA under the Financial Services and Markets Act The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not apply to any of these products. Please note that any products we have arranged for you will only be kept under review as part of an agreed on-going service for which you agree to pay. Any on-going service will be agreed with you and confirmed at the end of this document. We may contact you in the future by means of an unsolicited promotion (by telephone, or post) should we wish to discuss the relative merits of a particular product or service which we feel may be of interest to you. Please be aware that investments can fall as well as rise, and that you may not get back the full amount invested. The price of investments we may recommend may depend on fluctuations in the financial markets, or other economic factors, which are outside our control. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. Specific warnings relevant to the investments, investment strategies or other products we recommend will be confirmed to you in your suitability report. Neither PWP nor its employees are qualified to render legal or accounting advice or to prepare any legal or accounting documents. It is hereby understood and agreed that the onus is on you the client to refer to a solicitor or accountant any point of law or accountancy that may arise during the course of discussions with us. If, however, you would like us to refer a solicitor or accountant onto you, we will happily do so. Client Money PWP is not permitted to handle client money and we cannot accept a cheque made out to us (unless it is in respect of an item for which we have sent you an invoice) or handle cash. Documentation We will endeavour to make arrangements for all your investments to be registered in your name unless you first instruct us otherwise in writing. All policy documents will be forwarded to you as soon as practicable after we receive them. If there are a number of documents relating to a series of transactions, we will normally hold each document until the series is complete and then forward them to you.

3 Cancellation Rights In most cases you can exercise a right to cancel by withdrawing from the contract. In general terms you will normally have a 30 day cancellation period for a life, pure protection, payment protection or pension policy and a 14 day cancellation period for all other policies. With regard to mortgages, you will not be able to exercise a right to cancel a mortgage contract, unless the contract is concluded at a distance (i.e. no face to face advice), at which point you may have a 14 day cancellation period. For pure protection policies the start of the cancellation period will normally begin when you are informed that the contract has been concluded or, if later, when you have received the contractual terms and conditions. In other cases, the cancellation period will begin on the day the contract is concluded or, if later, the day on which you receive the contractual terms and conditions. Instructions for exercising the right to cancel, if applicable, will be contained in the relevant product disclosure information which will be issued to you. If you cancel a single premium contract, you may be required you to pay for any loss you might reasonably incur in cancelling it which is caused by market movements. This means that, in certain circumstances, you might not get back the full amount you invested if you cancel the policy. Additional Protection Premier Wealth Planning is a trading style of Premier Benefit Solutions Ltd. Premier Benefit Solutions Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA ), 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HS. Our FCA Register number is Our permitted business is advising on and arranging pensions, savings and investment products, non-investment insurance contracts and mortgages. You can check this on the FCA s Register by visiting the FCA s website or by contacting the FCA Consumer Helpline on (freephone) or by to consumer.queries@fca.org.uk. In the event that you are dissatisfied with a recommendation we have made you may be entitled to make a complaint. We have a complaints procedure that is available on request. If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us: In writing: Please write to the Compliance Officer, Premier Benefit Solutions Ltd, AMP House, Dingwall Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 2LX By phone: Telephone +44 (0) By complaints@premiercompanies.co.uk For your further protection if you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service ( FOS ). Full details of the FOS can be found on its website at Please be assured we treat complaints very seriously. We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ( FSCS ). You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. Investments - most types of investment business are covered for up to a maximum of 50,000. Insurance - advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit. Mortgages advising and arranging is covered up to a maximum limit of 50,000. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS at

4 Conflict of Interests We will endeavour always to act in the best interests of you our client. However, circumstances can arise where we or one of our other clients may have some form of interest in business being transacted for you. If this happens or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other clients conflict with your interests, we will write to you and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions, and detail the steps we will take to ensure fair treatment. From time to time we may attend training events delivered by product providers, fund managers and platforms. Some of the cost of providing this training may be passed to you as part of the total charges you pay. Further information regarding these arrangements is available on request. Ownership Premier Pensions Management Ltd owns 51% of our share capital. Termination You or we may terminate our authority to act on your behalf at any time, without penalty. Notice of this termination must be given in writing and will take effect from the date of receipt. Termination is without prejudice to any transactions already initiated which will be completed according to these terms of business unless otherwise agreed in writing. You will be liable to pay for any transactions made prior to termination and any fees outstanding, if applicable. Data Protection Your personal information is very important to us. We will endeavour to take all due care to protect this information. We would like to highlight below a few matters relating to your information that you should be aware of. Some services are provided to PWP by third parties such as processing business or obtaining compliance or regulatory advice, which warrant the disclosure of more than just your basic contact details. You agree that personal information held by ourselves may be disclosed on a confidential basis, and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, to any such third parties. You also agree that this information may be transferred electronically, e.g. and you agree that we, or any such third party, may contact you in future by any means of communication which we consider appropriate at the time. Product providers, lenders and investment managers may administer your policy, any existing policies you may have with them and provide other services, from centres in countries outside Europe (such as India and the USA) that do not always have the same standard of data Protection laws as the UK. However, they are required to put a contract in place to ensure that your information is adequately protected, and they will remain bound by their obligations under the Data Protection Act even when your personal information is processed outside Europe. Anti-money Laundering We are required by the anti-money laundering regulations to verify the identity of our clients, to obtain information as to the purpose and nature of the business which we conduct on their behalf, and to ensure that the information we hold is up-to-date. For this purpose we may use electronic identity verification systems and we may conduct these checks from time to time throughout our relationship, not just at the beginning.

5 Disclosure of Charges/Fees All charges/fees will be fully disclosed to you. These will be disclosed in summary form before we undertake any work for you. The precise charges relating to any work or recommendations we make will be confirmed in your suitability report or relevant product disclosure information that is provided to you. In respect of any regular premium policy which we have arranged for you, should you subsequently cease to pay premiums on the policy and in consequence we are obliged to refund the commission that has been paid to us, we reserve the right to charge you a fee representing the amount we have to repay, for a period of up to four years after commencement of the policy. We will confirm the exact amount that will need to be repaid by you and the timescale over which it will need to be repaid in the suitability report we will send you when a recommendation is made. We will not charge any such fee if you exercise your right to cancel in accordance with any cancellation notice sent to you by the life insurance company. There is no additional cost to you for using a means of distance communication. Our Remuneration Following our initial discussion (for which there is no charge) should you decide to go ahead there is a cost for our services. We offer a variety of methods by which we can be remunerated so that you can select the method that best suits your needs. We will discuss your payment options with you and answer any questions you have. We will not charge you until we have agreed with you how we are to be paid. We will also tell you if you have to pay VAT and if there are other costs that might arise in connection with the services we provide to you. Our Initial Charges Our charges relating to new work e.g. client take-on, new investments and one-off reviews are as follows: Initial Service Premier Initial Charges Our Premier service provides advice both at outset and on an on-going basis. Under the Premier service, we normally undertake a two meeting cycle at outset, followed by a regular review meeting, held at least once a year. The initial meeting is made up from a fact finding discussion where we build up a profile of your situation, recording details of income, outgoings, assets and liabilities. We also need to understand your personal and financial aims and objectives and how these are impacted by risk. After the initial fact find meeting, we will undertake research and analysis and then provide a full written report of our recommendations. The follow-up meeting gives you a chance to raise questions and understand how we have reached our recommendations.

6 In most cases, you are under no obligation to accept our advice. If you do not accept our advice, you will not be charged unless you are advised contrary to this position during the initial fact find meeting. This usually applies when dealing with particularly complex matters. Under this service, you have full access to your adviser by telephone and at all times. If you wish to proceed, we will charge either a Fee direct to you or alternatively, we will deduct our costs from your investment (known as Customer Agreed Remuneration). The initial costs of this service are based on a time cost service or fixed fee agreed at outset. Normally, if we make recommendations in respect of an investment portfolio of (say) 250,000 this would cost 2,640 (i.e. around 11 hours of work). Further information in terms of how to remunerate us is contained in the following sections. Prestige Our Prestige service provides a higher degree of advice both at outset and on an on-going basis. Under the Prestige service, your financial planning requires a higher degree of adviser intervention, usually as a result of complex tax, pension or investment matters. As a result we normally undertake a two meeting cycle at outset, followed by two or three review meetings a year. The initial meeting is made up from a fact finding discussion where we build up a profile of your situation, recording details of income, outgoings, assets and liabilities. We also need to understand your personal and financial aims and objectives and how these are impacted by risk. After the initial fact find meeting, we will undertake research and analysis and then provide a full written report of our recommendations. The follow-up meeting gives you a chance to raise questions and understand how we have reached our recommendations. In most cases, you are under no obligation to accept our advice. If you do not accept our advice, you will not be charged unless you are advised contrary to this position during the initial fact find meeting. This usually applies when dealing with particularly complex matters. If you wish to proceed, we will charge either a Fee direct to you or alternatively, we will deduct our costs from your investment (known as Customer Agreed Remuneration). Under this service, you have full access to your adviser by telephone and at all times. The initial costs of this service are based on a time cost service or fixed fee agreed at outset. Normally, if we make recommendations in respect of an investment portfolio of (say) 500,000 this would cost 4,800 (i.e.

7 around 20 hours of work). This higher fee recognises the fact the complexity or size of the portfolio will also give rise to other essential aspects of financial planning that need to be covered (such as inheritance tax planning). Further information in terms of how to remunerate us is contained in the following sections. Exchange Our Exchange service is designed for those clients who do not require on-going advice. Instead, this service is designed for those who wish to make a one-off transaction. Paying for our Services Under the Exchange service, we normally undertake a fact find meeting either on a face to face basis or via the telephone. During this initial fact find meeting, we build up a profile of your situation, but only ask questions in respect of your affairs which will impact on our advice, including your risk profile. People who opt for this service tend to require Limited Advice only, rather than holistic advice (the latter form of advice considers your overall circumstances and provides advice based on your wider affairs). After the initial fact find meeting, we will undertake research and analysis and then provide a written report of our recommendations. In most cases, you are under no obligation to accept our advice. If you do not accept our advice, you will not be charged unless you are advised contrary to this position during the initial fact find meeting. This usually applies when dealing with particularly complex matters. If you wish to proceed, we will charge either a Fee direct to you or alternatively, we will deduct our costs from your investment (known as Customer Agreed Remuneration). The initial costs of this service are based on a time cost service or fixed fee agreed at outset. Normally, if we make recommendations in respect of an investment of (say) 20,000 this would cost 600 (i.e. around 2.5 hours of work). Further information in terms of how to remunerate us is contained in the following sections. We will discuss your payment options with you and agree with you how we will be paid. You may pay our adviser charges via deductions from the financial product(s) that you might invest in, where the product provider allows this. Please note that if you choose to pay by deduction from a financial product this will reduce the amount left for investment and may, depending on your circumstances, have other consequences. If you select this option we will discuss the implications of using this payment method with you prior to putting it in place. You can also pay our adviser charges by cheque or bank transfer. We do not accept payments by cash. Our charges will become payable on completion of our work and should be settled within 28 business days. You will be provided with a receipt upon payment.

8 Please note (as referred to in the table above) a minimum charge may be applied even if you choose not to invest in a product. We reserve the right to charge you for services provided prior to cancellation. Paying by Instalments (regular premium contracts only) Where you invest in a regular premium contract e.g. where contributions are made on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, you can choose to pay your adviser charge in instalments (note that the option to pay in a single payment is still available). Our normal approach will be for the payment to be spread over a maximum of 12 months. Exact details will be confirmed in writing with you. Where you are investing in a product you can choose to have your adviser charge deducted from the product through instalments (where the provider is able to offer this facility). Although you may pay nothing to us up front that does not mean that our service is free. You still pay us indirectly through deductions from the amount you pay into your product. These deductions could reduce the amount left for investment and may, depending on your circumstances, have other consequences. If you select this option we will discuss the implications of using this payment method with you prior to putting it in place. Where you have opted to pay our adviser charge by instalments these payments are linked to the on-going payment of agreed regular contributions into your plan (until the agreed adviser charge has been paid in full). In the event that the regular contributions to your plan are not maintained (until the agreed adviser charge has been paid in full) we reserve the right to request full payment of any outstanding balance of the charges for our services. On-going Services Our on-going charges are based on the service agreed at outset. Our charges relating to on-going services are as follows: Service Premier What we do as part of our on-going commitment It is important to review your affairs and this is addressed by our regular review meeting, held at least once a year. However, we may bring this review meeting forward or suggest an additional meeting in certain circumstances (e.g. a sudden change of investment markets). The review meeting allows us to consider the following: A review of your portfolio Any rebalancing of the portfolio that is required To ensure you are on track to meet your objectives To identify any changes in your circumstances and to consider what action is required To plan ahead for the next 12 months. During the period before and after any review meeting, we also monitor your portfolio identifying whether any ad-hoc changes are necessary. An example would be where a specific investment fund is no longer appropriate (perhaps the fund manager has left his position and the fund becomes unstable). If changes are required we will contact you either by telephone, or post.

9 We also may contact you if we feel certain economic or industry developments (e.g. a new product or tax changes) warrant further discussion. During the course of the year we also deal with administrative queries with your various investment Providers relating to your investment portfolio or pension affairs. Under this service, you have full access to your adviser by telephone and at all times. Under Premier service, the on-going costs of our service will normally be approximately 1,000 to 1,500 pa. This can be paid either by fee or via the Customer Agreed Remuneration facility within your portfolio. Prestige Under this service we will normally undertake at least two review meetings each year, possibly more as your circumstances are likely to require a higher level of attention in relation to investments, taxation and pension planning. We may also request an additional meeting or bring forward a review meeting in certain circumstances (e.g. a sudden change of investment markets). The review meeting allows us to consider the following: A review of your portfolio Any rebalancing of the portfolio that is required To ensure you are on track to meet your objectives To identify any changes in your circumstances and to consider what action is required To plan ahead for the next 12 months. In each review meeting we will also provide additional commentary from your fund managers, therefore providing their own opinion to the fund performance of your portfolio. During the period before and after any review meeting, we also monitor your portfolio identifying whether any ad-hoc changes are necessary. An example would be where a specific investment fund is no longer appropriate (perhaps the fund manager has left his position and the fund becomes unstable). If changes are required we will contact you either by telephone, or post. We will contact you certain economic or industry developments (e.g. a new product or tax changes) warrant further discussion. During the course of the year we also deal with administrative queries with your various investment Providers relating to your investment portfolio or pension affairs. Under this service, you have full access to your adviser by telephone and at all times.

10 Under Prestige service, the on-going costs of our service will be approximately 4,000 to 5,000 pa. This can be paid either by fee or via the Customer Agreed Remuneration facility within your portfolio. Exchange Under the Exchange service we will not provide regular review meetings. Our only commitment to deal with administrative aspects of your portfolio. This administration includes dealing with correspondence and monitoring the Provider (but not necessarily the investment fund into which you have invested). If you wish us to review the portfolio, we would require you to become a Premier service client. Under Exchange service, we will normally incur costs of approximately 200 to 400 pa. This can be paid either by fee or via the Customer Agreed Remuneration facility within your investment. As previously mentioned, payments for the above services can be made either by regular fee (paid by standing order) or by deduction from your investment(s) on a monthly, quarterly, six-monthly or annual basis, where the product provider is able to offer this facility. These deductions could reduce the amount left for investment and may, depending on your circumstances, have other consequences. If you select this option we will discuss the implications of using this payment method with you prior to putting it in place. On-going services can be cancelled at any time by simply informing us in writing. Please note that we reserve the right to charge you for services provided prior to cancellation. Protection Business You can pay for our advised protection services by fee, commission or a combination of these. In relation to non-investment protection contracts, if you wish us to work on a fee basis the fee will be based on an hourly rate basis subject to a minimum fee of 500. Any commission can be used to offset this fee. Any surplus will be refunded to you. Where we use or refer to hourly rate fees the current rates used are as follows: Director Financial Adviser Administrator 270 per hour 240 per hour 168 per hour Where we are paid by commission we will tell you the amount before we carry out any business for you. Non-advised Services You can pay for our non-advised services on the basis of commission or fee. We will tell you how we get paid and the amount before we carry out any business for you.

11 Your Consent This is our standard terms of business upon which we intend to rely. For your own benefit and protection you should read these terms carefully before signing them. Please sign both copies of this agreement, and return one copy to us. If you do not understand any point please ask for further information. I authorise the transfer of information, on a confidential basis when warranted between any such third parties. I acknowledge that this agreement will come into effect from the date of issue. I also confirm that I AM / I AM NOT happy to give PWP my express consent to contact me by telephone to discuss advising on or arranging financial or insurance products in future. On-going service level agreed: Exchange Premier Prestige If other specify details: Details of agreed remuneration: Payable as: First Client Name: Signature: Date: Second Client Name: Signature: Date: Version: 11/14